Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland

Writer: Rose Coogan  Director: Benjamin Gould Rose+Bud is the story of a young woman who can’t ride a bike exploring newfound adulthood, independence, and transness. She leaves her rural hometown to study in Derry, and allows herself to transition. Life changes, for better or for worse.  The play is well-written, relatable, and funny. Rose Coogan is the playwright, and plays a character who shares her name. The difficulty of autofictional theatre isn’t present for the most part; the audience laughs with Rose, sympathetic especially to the caricature vignettes of queer adolescence. References and allusions to Titanic, Buffy, and The Wizard…

Writer: Gina Donnelly Director: Gina Donnelly & Tony Devlin Anthem for Dissatisfaction will not be for absolutely everyone, but it’s undeniable that if you’ve ever had a sibling, lost a parent, loved a song, loved a band, felt that anything was possible because of a great song, been poor, been young, been older, or gotten through a tough spell because of the presence of one person, you’ll find something to identify with, latch onto, and even cherish in it. Jamie (Simon Sweeney) and Sarah (Emily Lamey) are Irish twins, with the barely older Sarah guiding him through his musical education…

Writer: Cian Jordan & Allie O’Rourke Director: Cian Jordan & Allie O’Rourke It’s difficult to not find A Good Room charming, at the very least, from the beginning – assembling outside the Annesley House pub on North Strand, you’re met by Cian Jordan’s nan (Emily Bradley), who escorts you to her house for the performance, bantering and chatting for the duration. Inside, she gives you a rundown of the house rules, and then you’re wedged into the upstairs room – Jordan’s actual bedroom – for the performance.  It would be harsh to say that this is where it begins to…

Writer: Janet Moran Director: Conall Morrison Janet Moran’s brand new and thought-provoking play Afterwards takes to the Peacock Stage with an emotional opening preview. Six years after the Repeal the 8th Movement, it is a passionate yet aggressive declaration of what’s next, not only in relation to women and their reproductive rights but also for the referendum itself.  Afterwards showcases three women, two Irish Women – one a married mother of three, the other, an eighteen year old – and a young English solicitor in a recovery ward of an abortion clinic in the UK. The two Irish women, evidently…

Writer: Meade Conway Director: Sally Hennessy The subject of the play: a scandal within a school, one of the boys is suddenly shunned by the others. Ms Turley grows increasingly concerned, particularly as her son Tommy is at risk of being next. It’s never revealed to the audience what the scandal is. It felt like a relief that it was never named, as it’s difficult to imagine the playwright could’ve handled anything like the abuses within schools with the degree of sensitivity and gravity that would be required. Unfortunately this play is more like a thin sketch, a vague outline…

Writer and Director: Garrett Keogh  Music Composition: Hélène Montague and Trevor Knight  HEAD CASE comes to us today compliments of The Gap Arts Festival. Garrett Keogh is himself a Director of this “community and artist-led festival” which “takes place in the hills of North Wexford each year” and “has evolved to include live classical and rock music, poetry and spoken word, movies, spectacle, VR, pageant and dance.”  Keogh is instantly recognisable when he takes the stage to the wonderful, live piano accompaniment of classical musician, Hélène Montague. The Abbey trained actor has been a familiar face across theatre and film,…

This summer Off the Ground (OTG) theatre company have returned to outdoor venues across the UK and Ireland with their new version of Much Ado About Nothing. Each summer sees them put together a tour that will take in unusual venues, thousands of audience members, and many, many miles. How do they manage to pull this off every year? The Review’s Hub Ireland sat down with OTG member Connor Wray, to find out more. Connor Wray, fresh from playing Benedick in some of the most beautiful venues, explained how they choose their summer play. Planning outdoor summer shows is a…

Writer: Emma Moohan Director: Gertrude Montgomery Aileen is the story of Alien told entirely from Ellen (or Aileen) Ripley’s point of view, in her deposition to the Weyland-Yutani shareholders after her 57 years of hypersleep stasis have come to an end. As your reviewer is constantly on the hunt for new Alien-related content, from YouTube channels explaining the lore and draft versions of the script to the fan edit “Chaos Edition” of Prometheus, this should have been an ideal way to spend 95 minutes. Despite this bank of goodwill, or perhaps because of heightened expectations, it was a middling show…